We were lucky to catch up with Danielle Todd recently and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

In 2016, I decided to commit my professional career to making an impact on climate change. I spent some time researching the best solutions to see where my interests and skills would be the right match. That’s when I discovered that food waste reduction is one of the best things we can do to stop the planet from warming. Here I was a food lover for so many years and I never realized that I could combine my interest in food and my desire to support the planet. I spent the next year learning as much as I could about the issue, looking for ways I could plug in. That’s when I came across an event called Feeding the 5000, which had been held in about 60 cities around the world. It’s an event that’s designed to inspire people to waste less food at home, which is the biggest source of food waste. I became inspired to bring that event to Detroit. Thankfully, others like the Detroit Food Policy Council and Chef Phil Jones, agreed and the first event, renamed Make Food Not Waste — A Community Feast was held in September 2018.

Danielle, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Make Food Not Waste has evolved since its first event in September 2018. We now operate two kitchens in the city of Detroit where professional chefs make 100,000 community meals a year, all from food that would otherwise go to waste. We offer training and support to restaurants and foodservice businesses who are looking to reduce food waste. And we are taking a lead role in helping Michigan reach its goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030. I am proud of the way we’ve been able to grow over the past few years to support work that makes a big difference. But I’m also proud of the way we’ve done it. Our values — joy, courage, and generosity — encourage people to be a part of what we’re building. And we are able to stand behind our claims. We don’t have to exaggerate what we’re doing — the work really is as awesome as it sounds!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’ve just read The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. This is one of the areas I struggle with the most but leading, managing, and being public with opinions opens you up to criticism, both constructive and non-constructive, pretty quickly. This book is one I will be rereading regularly!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a mid-career professional, I’ve had a number of experiences and I can’t say that most of them were pleasant. At the time, I thought work was supposed to be difficult and that you had to use a lot of force to make things happen. Now I realize that it was difficult because I wasn’t in the right space. I suppose you could say that now I experience flow in my work. It’s still challenging, but in a way that is much more invigorating.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.makefoodnotwaste.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/makefooddetroit
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/makefooddetroit
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-todd/